Law firms and attorneys that have sued Los Angeles — and in some cases secured millions of dollars in city payouts stemming from litigation settlements — have emerged as significant financial supporters of City Attorney candidate Marissa Roy, injecting new scrutiny into the role of legal community money in one of the city’s most-watched 2026 races.
Campaign finance filings reviewed by the Southern California News Group, cross-checked against Checkbook L.A. records, show a cluster of law firms that have sued the city and secured large payouts also contributed to Roy’s campaign.
Roy, a deputy attorney general in the state’s Department of Justice, has campaigned on promises to rein in liability spending and remake the City Attorney’s Office into what she describes as a more aggressive public-interest law office.
The contributors include prominent personal injury, civil rights and employment law firms that have litigated against the city in recent years. Records reviewed by SCNG show several firms appearing in Roy’s donor base have received millions of dollars in city payouts related to lawsuits and settlements dating back to 2010, including more than $58 million paid to Panish Shea Ravipudi and nearly $28 million to Greene Broillet & Wheeler.
The fundraising patterns come as ballooning legal payouts and settlement costs have become increasingly central issues in the City Attorney race, which also includes challengers John McKinney and Aida Ashouri.
According to the Los Angeles City Controller’s liability claims dashboard, city liability payouts climbed from roughly $91 million in fiscal year 2021-22 to about $281 million in fiscal year 2024-25, with police-related claims accounting for the largest share of payouts.
The growing costs have fueled criticisms from challengers and some lawyers involved in litigation against the city, who argue incumbent City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto has mishandled settlement strategy and over-relied on outside counsel.
Roy, who is running with the backing from the Los Angeles County Democratic Party and several labor groups, rejected suggestions that the support reflected improper influence or conflicts, arguing instead that the donations stem from her years of consumer-protection work and dissatisfaction within the legal community over the city’s litigation strategy.
“I’ve been a consumer protection attorney for nearly a decade,” she said Friday. “I’m running on a very explicit consumer protection vision, trying to scale up the work we do — suing abusive corporations, doing workers’ rights and tenants rights.”
Roy also argued that many of the attorneys supporting her campaign have worked alongside her in consumer-protection and public-interest litigation and support her vision of transforming the City Attorney’s Office into “the most significant public interest law office.”
She also said the fundraising pattern was not unusual in City Attorney races, where candidates often drew support from attorneys working in related legal fields.
“I think actually what is unusual is to see the lack of support for the incumbent from the legal community,” Roy said, criticizing Feldstein Soto’s handling of liability spending and outside counsel contracts.
Feldstein Soto’s campaign, meanwhile, argued Roy’s fundraising undercut her criticism of rising city liability payouts.
“Ms. Roy has made settlements a central plank of the campaign, and yet, has accepted nearly half of her total fundraising from the exact firms who have made millions suing the City,” the Feldstein Soto campaign said in a statement on Friday.
The incumbent’s campaign defended Feldstein Soto’s record, citing efforts targeting sex trafficking, price gouging and homelessness enforcement, while arguing she has strengthened safeguards and accountability within the office.
“Los Angeles City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto has raised the most money, from the most individuals, because she’s done an incredible job of reforming the office,” her campaign said in the statement, pointing to anti-sex-trafficking-efforts along the Figueroa Corridor, actions against major corporations accused of price gouging fire victims and polluting waterways, and enforcement of 41.18, the city’s anti-camping ordinance near schools and childcare centers.
Some attorneys who have secured large verdicts against the city publicly criticized Feldstein Soto’s litigation strategy in recent years, arguing the city has rejected lower settlement offers only to face substantially larger jury verdicts later.
Panish Shea Ravipudi attorneys, for example, criticized the city attorney’s handling of a nearly $49 million jury verdict stemming from a 2024 collision in which a Los Angeles city sanitation truck struck a pedestrian in Encino, leaving him comatose, arguing the city had opportunities to settle the matter earlier for less.
“The Los Angeles City Attorney had an opportunity to settle this case for less than the verdict, but rejected all demands and offered $0,” attorney Brian Panish said in a statement posted on the firm’s website last July.
Feldstein Soto and her office have argued that rising liability costs reflect broader national trends involving increasingly large “nuclear verdicts” — jury awards exceeding roughly $10 million — as well as post-pandemic litigation backlogs and rising settlement values.
In a litigation cost report published in June 2025, the City Attorney’s Office cited a national study finding California led the nation in nuclear verdicts in personal injury and wrongful death cases between 2013 and 2022.
Roy is one of several challengers seeking to unseat Feldstein Soto in the June 2 primary election. The field also includes deputy district attorney John McKinney and human rights attorney Aida Ashouri.